Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/675

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In England. 645 Frederick Walker (1840—1875), in his all too short career, made himself justly famous for his pictures of landscapes with figures : he was the only Englishman who received a medal for water-colour painting at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1867. Looking round upon the general position of painting in England at the present time, we find careful reference to nature and independence of style the leading characteristics of the professors of every branch of art. The movement commenced in 1850 by a body of young artists, headed by men still living, exercised a remarkable influence at the time. Under the title of pre-Raphaelites, the members of this school professed to repudiate all imitation of the works of other men, and to ignore entirely all that was done by Raphael and his school, taking the direct study of nature as their chief inspiration. The leaders of this school have, some of them, forsaken its principles; and the movement may perhaps be said to be dying out, having, however, no doubt served to stimulate an atten- tion to detail and the study of nature. Side by side with the pre-Raphaelites we find a few